Web Analytics: Your Secret Weapon for Growth & Engagement

Very few companies we encounter are dedicating enough time to viewing and understanding their web analytics. Even if your time is limited, or if you do not know where to begin, analyzing just a little bit of data goes a long way.

In many ways, web analytics are your secret weapon for making the right improvements to your website. For us, they’re the foundation of our entire inbound marketing philosophy.

Let’s look at some ways web analytics empower you to make smarter marketing decisions around your website.

Improve Website Engagement

Before making a single edit to your website, you should have a strong understanding of how your visitors are currently using it. Analytics tools like Google Analytics, Clicky, or Kissmetrics let you view which pages on your site receive the most traffic and where that traffic comes from, such as search engines or social media. This data provides tons of insight into how users interact with your site. It also lays the foundation for multiple levels of website improvement.

If you’re using marketing automation platforms like SharpSpring or HubSpot, website engagement is even easier to view, track and integrate with your marketing efforts. Email campaign and landing page analytics become available in real-time.

When you understand how visitors find what they’re looking for on your site, you’re able to improve the quality of your marketing message and convert more users.

Maximize Search Metrics

We can’t overstate the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in maintaining a healthy website. Taking time to analyze search metrics and plan your keyword strategies is vital for your site’s growth and profitability.

SEO tools, like Moz or Ahrefs, track your site’s authority and keyword strategy. These tools also provide a comprehensive look at how search engines are ranking your site. So, if your goal is to capitalize on a specific search phrase or keyword, these tools will point out how to best optimize your website for them and drive more traffic.

Optimize User-Experience

Optimizing user-experience (UX) is all about creating a fluid, intuitive experience on your website. Pages should load quickly and navigation should make sense–no matter the user’s device.

But, not all mobile sites are created equal. In our mobile-first world, a mobile-responsive site just isn’t good enough for most users. A mobile-friendly site is designed with smartphones and tablets in mind from the beginning to deliver a better experience for visits.

With Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, you can easily identify ways to improve your site’s user experience for mobile users. Acting on this boosts your site’s authority and helps earn you more qualified leads.

Spotlight Important Elements

Page views and clicks are great things to know, but they don’t necessarily tell the entire story of how your page is performing. Heat mapping tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg are a great way to view what your visitors are reading on each page, as well as how quickly they’re moving through your site.

This information is critical to understanding your visitors’ thought process as they interact with your site. For example, if you have an important call to action on a page that visitors aren’t filling out, viewing that page’s heat map can show you where visitors are disengaging–allowing you to move the form to a more prominent location and improve engagement.

What to Do Next

To some of you, all this may seem obvious. To others, perhaps this seems overwhelming. That’s okay! Mastering your analytics data takes time. What’s important is getting started. By understanding how your site is currently used, you’ll be able to make smarter, more profitable decisions around it. Contact us and let’s talk about how we can improve your website to deliver better customers to your front door.